They put together an exceptional third quarter Thursday against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers before falling apart, 108-100 at the United Center and falling to 5-7 at home.

"Night in and night out, you don't know which Chicago Bulls team is going to show up," guard Chris Duhon said. "The horrible team, the mediocre team or the team that's good. We have like three different faces."

The Bulls showed all three faces in the course of the game played in front of a sellout crowd of 21,874.

James had his typical outstanding offensive game with 37 points, but the Cavaliers' Damon Jones packed the biggest punch with three consecutive three-pointers in the Cavs' 18-2 run to open the fourth quarter. Jones sank four three-pointers in the fourth and five in the game, which accounted for all of his 15 points.

"You could see it coming in our posture and the way we were handling ourselves out there," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said of the Bulls' meltdown. "It was inevitable they were going to make some kind of run. There was no way we were going to run away from them. There are points in the game where you have a choice to make. Either fight or flee."

The Bulls didn't put up much of a fight. They ended up being spectators as Cleveland went to the free-throw line 41 times, converting 33 attempts. In stark contrast, the Bulls went 8 of 10.

Behind Andres Nocioni, the Bulls had looked promising in the third quarter.

Nocioni gave Skiles what he wanted defensively, drawing charges twice from Zydrunas Ilgauskas and once from James in the third. Late in the third, Ben Gordon drew one from Larry Hughes. Nocioni scored 21 points to go with 10 rebounds.

Early second-half turnovers by the Cavaliers helped the Bulls turn a 57-53 halftime deficit into a six-point lead 3 1/2 minutes into the third quarter. The Cavaliers didn't have a field goal for nearly the first six minutes in the third.

"In the third quarter we got up on those guys and made them penetrate," Skiles said. "We were there to take the charge. When things stopped going our way for just a couple of minutes, that all stopped as well. We became very tentative on both ends of the floor."

And the Cavs continued to fire from the perimeter.

"We didn't respond," said Ben Gordon, who scored a team-high 22 points, 18 in the first half.

This wasn't the first time this season the Bulls turned lifeless.

"For whatever reason, we are not fighting back when other teams give us a blow," Skiles said.

Ultimately, they couldn't combat James' almost superhuman ability and the experience of Ilgauskas and Jones, both of whom are in their eighth season. Ilgauskas finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds. He went 11 of 11 from the free-throw line, getting one more shot than all the Bulls combined.

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